Not satisfied with Google’s response as I didn’t find a definitive answer. Thus I post it here.
Beyond that, why would other faiths/religions “celebrate” this day?
Thanks in advance,
~Red
The Japanese have adopted the American form (with the gift-giving) due to American influence in the last century. There’s a funny response to this in one of Kosuke Fujishima’s “You’re Under Arrest” manga, wherein some lonely guy grows resentful of the wave of Christmas hype, & says sarcastically, “It’s a Christian holiday! Are they all Christians?”
Here, the malls have Christmas trees and play carols (of course interrupted by the call to prayer which also plays over the PA system in all the malls). Most businesses are open on the 25th, but a few will close. For the most part, it is just another day with slightly lighter traffic.
I think it’s pretty common for people of other faiths in Christian countries to celebrate it in some way. My gf’s buddist family does, and I’ve heard the same from other folks. Might seem a little strange, but even for most Christians its a pretty secular holiday, and Hindus and Muslims get the day off to, and no doubt enjoy getting presents as much as their neighbors.
Not in the least a holiday over here. Just a normal day for the Thais.
However, because of the large Western community and numbers of Western tourists, department stores and shopping malls know that Christmas = profits, so there are decorations and crappy Christmas music blaring in almost every shop that a farang (Westerner) might even consider setting foot in. On top of that, Thais DO give presents for New Year’s, and a lot of the New Year’s decorations around the city of Bangkok LOOK like Christmas decorations, so there is a real festive feel.
But no, the Thais could not care less about December 25. Neither do the vast majority elsewhere in Southeast Asia apart from the Philippines and MAYBE Singapore.
Thanks guys, this is exactly what I was looking for: people living in countries outside the Christian sphere of influence and how Christmas affects them and/or the society they are in.
Full disclosure: this query stems from a (very civil) discussion I had last night at a large dinner with family, friends and and a Catholic priest friendly to all (though I barely know anything him, he did seem fairly well misinformed about my own personal beliefs. Gee! I wonder how that happened. Not)) where I happened to be the only heathen. Wasn’t so much of an argument but more their utter confidence that today is, indeed, “celebrated worldwide.” I questioned said proposition and yet I wasn’t fully prepared to rebut it.
This is really helping.
Night and thanks again.
What exactly did they say? Saying that it is “celebrated worldwide” is a quite different proposition than saying that it is a “worldwide holiday.” It will be “celebrated” at least privately anywhere there are Christians, and there are at least a few Christians almost anywhere. So that if this is what they said, they are probably correct. On the other hand, there are many places where the majority of the population is non-Christian where there will be no official or public celebration.
Indian was ruled by Britain for a long time and hence hence X’mas is a holiday ( for governemnt agencies) here along with Easter.
It is not, however, a holiday (as in, getting off work). The 23rd is, though, as it’s the Emperor’s birthday.
Not a holiday in China, although the foreign community sure thins out this time of year. New Year’s day and the second are official Chinese national holidays. In Shanghai at least, there are bad decorations and worse canned muzak being played around the city. My daughters very local chinese elementary school had xmas decorations up on the windows.
church services everywhere there is a church with either christmas eve services/mass or christmas day services. Some of the services obviously for foreigners and others in Chinese only.
Colibri, it was actually the Priest that brought it up at the blessing. He said something to the effect of “hoy se celebra mundialmente el nacimiento del Señor entre todos los hombres y mujeres de paz*” Naturally I didn’t say anything at the moment nor during dinner, but the wording had bothered me as it was A-exclusive and B-as I am confirming here from many accounts, literally not true. So I did bring it up, quite politely, in an after dinner conversation – although, as I said, I don’t know him well at all, I respect the man, not only due to his very advanced age but for his intelligence as well. A published Jesuit author with a couple of PHDs under his belt. And quite humble to boot. I can understand the attraction others feel for the man.
Anyway, would that I had the info I have now. Not that I did too bad in our informal “debate,” as he agreed his blessing was exclusive and apologized for that, but I would have done much better with this info.
Thanx again, all.
*Would you please do the honors and translate? Obviously I quite capable of doing so myself in informal fashion. Not so much when accuracy/semantics are of utmost importance.
TY.
PS-Darn. I must be hungry. Otherwise I don’t quite understand why I keep leaving words out of my posts.
In the asterisk part, that should read “I AM…”
:smack:
depends on what ‘celebrate’ means. here it’s just an excuse to dress up, see the lights and exchange gifts. we need more holidays!
In Israel, it is not a national holiday – government offices are not closed. However, the commercial side is certainly exploited, and Jewish and Moslem shops are happy to sell stuff to Christian tourists. In addition to the normal commercial shopping that you’ll find in lots of places, there’s special stuff for the Christian pilgrims coming to the Holy Land for Christmas: you can probably buy a piece of straw from Jesus’ manager, if you want. But in terms of the day, it’s pretty much a business-as-usual day for the non-Christians.
Anecdote:
I was in Bethlehem shortly after Christmas 1995. Rabin had been assassinated a couple months before, and I seem to remember that control over Bethlehem had just been handed over to the PLO. The “Christmas” decorations which I saw were kind of amusing–averaging one third pictures of Mary and the Baby or the traditional Nativity scene, one third PLO flags, and one third pictures of Yassir Arafat.
It’s a national holiday in Korea, but it’s not a major one; just another day off for most people. It’s definitely not a family holiday for the majority of people celebrating it. It’s an excuse for couples to give each other expensive presents and go out to expensive restaurants. Christians will usually spend most of the day at church. Most people don’t even put up a tree at home.
I just got back Monday evening after spending the month in Taiwan. I was surprised to find quite an abundance of Christmas decorations and piped muzak everywhere, just as much as here almost. I’m told the younger generations are celebrating Christmas as more of a new trend/fad. I believe that less than 5% of Taiwanese are Christian.
Direct translation seems fine, “Today the birth of the Lord is celebrated worldwide among all men and women of peace.” Non-native speaker, anyone feel free to correct me.
I would have to agree with Colibri’s earlier sentiment. You are correct that there are men and women “of peace” who are not Christian, and it would be more accurate to remove the “all”. But from a priest giving a blessing in (I presume) a Catholic household, I would assume he was making a reference to the “catholic” (ie, universal) nature of the Church, and not a statement about whether or not non-Christians are peaceful people. Now, if he knew there were non-Christians at the table, I might say it was tactless, but either way I wouldn’t take the statement to mean that Christmas is a “worldwide holiday”.
That’s not the reason Christmas is a holiday in India. It’s more because India is a secular state, and the major holidays of all religions are official state holidays - including Christmas, Diwali and Eid, to take examples from three religions. It’s not really the British influence.
The only worldwide holiday I can think of is New Year’s Day.